The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 107 Collapse at the First Touch

The Maxim heavy machine gun position had just been hit by a fierce attack from more than ten rifles of the suicide squad across the river. Five of the more than ten people had been killed, and almost all the others were injured. There were even two coalition soldiers with blood on their chests, leaning against the sandbag wall, dying and unable to move.

A substitute heavy machine gunner with blood still flowing from his shoulder had grasped the handle of the Maxim heavy machine gun with both hands, but he had not yet pulled the trigger to start shooting at the suicide squad members rushing over from the pontoon. This might be because his eyesight had not yet recovered, or his injured shoulder affected his movements.

If this Maxim heavy machine gun had the chance to open fire, the dozens of death squads rushing over the pontoon bridge would probably be killed or wounded in a matter of moments.
Wu Peifu, who was frightened and sweating coldly, did not dare to delay. He threw down the big knife in his hand, held the gun with both hands, aimed at the coalition heavy machine gunner more than ten meters away, pulled the trigger repeatedly, and fired four shots in succession. The first two bullets hit the coalition soldier's shoulder, the third hit the opponent's neck, and it was not until the fourth shot that hit the head, completely killing the heavy machine gunner. Only then did he think about helping Liu Shijiu.

However, there was no trace of Liu Shijiu behind the heavy machine gun position. Not only was Liu Shijiu nowhere to be seen, but there was no figure of the coalition forces standing behind the sandbag fortifications.

Such a scene made Wu Peifu break out in a cold sweat. Could it be that Liu Shijiu was killed or seriously injured?
Wu Peifu rushed to the back of the fortifications and quickly scanned the area behind them.

There were corpses lying on the ground behind the fortifications. In addition to several who were shot to death, there were three without heads, two with slit throats, one whose cervical vertebrae were probably broken by a strong blow and his head was tilted to one side, and another one was so horrible that Wu Peifu almost vomited.

This was a blond, blue-eyed officer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was cut into two pieces by a broadsword across his back, and his colorful intestines were all over the floor.

However, no trace of Liu Shijiu was found behind the fortifications.

Wu Peifu hurriedly searched everywhere and found that Liu Shijiu was waving a big knife, shouting and leading a group of death squads, chasing the remnants of the Allied Forces fleeing into the concession street towards the street ahead.

The coalition forces that escaped back and the two platoons of coalition forces guarding the bridgehead were said to have more than 200 people. However, they immediately fled as soon as they engaged in close combat and hand-to-hand combat with more than 100 death squads. The reason was that the death squads, led by the brave Liu Shijiu, were as powerful as tigers and good at hand-to-hand combat. The coalition forces that still wanted to resist were no match for the death squads who pounced on them.

Another reason was that the more than one hundred remnants of the Allied Forces who had just escaped had neither the will nor the energy to fight again. After crossing the pontoon bridge, they did not stay to resist, but continued to flee into the concession, which was of no help to the Allied Forces guarding the bridgehead.

On the contrary, their escape also prompted one of the Italian platoons to escape as well, which caused Liu Shijiu and the suicide squad members to chase and kill the enemy almost all the way after rushing across the pontoon bridge, without encountering any decent resistance at all.

When he was still in his hometown Penglai, Wu Peifu had heard of the name Liu Nineteen. Although Wu Peifu was also good at wielding swords and guns to improve his skills at that time, he was devoted to studying and was not interested in Liu Nineteen, a kind of outlaw, and never studied him in depth.

However, today he was really enlightened. This Liu Shijiu was so skilled in martial arts that he killed seven fully armed coalition officers and soldiers in just a short time! Even though these people were injured to varying degrees, Wu Peifu was still amazed!

The mission of the death squad was to seize the bridgehead, and the rest was left to the follow-up troops. Before they set out, Teng Yuzao sent a messenger to tell him to keep an eye on Liu Jiujiu and try his best to ensure his safety. Now that the bridgehead had been captured, they only needed to seize a few buildings at the intersection to ensure the safety of the follow-up troops through the pontoon, and the death squad would have completed their mission.

Wu Peifu ordered the two vanguard soldiers who followed him, "Stay here and guard this Maxim heavy machine gun while we wait for the main force to cross the river."

After saying that, Wu Peifu ran after Liu Shijiu.

Wu Peifu was very worried that Liu Shijiu would go crazy and kill people, so he chased these panicked and confused coalition forces relentlessly and killed them all the way into the streets.

There will be more and more coalition forces on the streets. Facing the coalition forces armed with modern weapons, no matter how high your martial arts skills are, you are still flesh and blood after all, and you will definitely not be able to stop the bullets.

******
Since the Vanguard Army had never used artillery in the previous two battles with the Allied Forces, the Allied Forces had a misunderstanding about the Vanguard Army, thinking that the Vanguard Army had no artillery or that they had no people who could use artillery.

The coalition forces would not fail to understand the ins and outs of the Vanguard Army. Although the strong combat effectiveness of such a hastily formed force surprised the commanders of the coalition forces, they generally still had a feeling of dissatisfaction with the Vanguard Army. Many people even believed that the Vanguard Army succeeded by luck in the first two operations.

In addition, the coalition forces were not very impressed with the Wuwei Army's artillery technology, as their accuracy was very poor. This had a lot to do with the timeliness and accuracy of their calculations of shooting parameters, as well as the general lack of live-fire drills among gunners.

Therefore, the coalition forces dispatched from the concession this time did not make any anti-artillery preparations, especially at night, which made them feel more at ease. However, they suffered a great loss. Although it was only two rapid shots from the Second Battalion of the Artillery Regiment, the casualties they caused were enormous. The short artillery bombardment caused nearly half of the unprepared coalition forces to be killed or injured.

After the bombardment, there were less than four hundred troops who were lucky enough not to be injured or only slightly injured and were able to escape. Although the soldiers of the Second Regiment needed to chase them for another five or six hundred meters to catch up with the fleeing coalition forces, the injured coalition forces were destined to be caught up by the Vanguard Army and the Qian Regiment on the way to escape, and it was almost inevitable that they would become victims of the Qian Regiment.

When Li Xianze led the Second Regiment to charge the remaining enemy, Teng Yuzhao did not leave the position immediately. He, Hu Dajiu, Li Yaoting and others were the last pursuit team to set out, because Teng Yuzhao had to write a report of victory to Yu Lu.

Teng Yuzao wrote two victory reports. The first one was about a regiment's victory in blocking Seymour. Although the exact results have not been counted yet, Teng Yuzao was not too rigid. Instead, he directly reported that more than 900 enemies were killed and Seymour fled in a panic. He is currently sending troops to pursue him.

According to Teng Yuzhao's estimation, since Seymour wanted to confuse him, the number of decoy troops left by Seymour would not be too small. Too few people would not only fail to play a diversionary role, but would even allow the vanguard army to discover him in advance and escape by a detour. Therefore, there must be at least seven or eight hundred people. Add the wounded and the few artillerymen, and there would be a total of nine hundred decoy troops. This number is neither too small nor too small.

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(End of this chapter)